The UN Secretary General added this is a moment for action to create productive jobs and expand economic opportunity, especially for women and young people, and to ensure that rapid evolutions in technology like artificial intelligence are a help, and not a harm to humanity, calling for forging the solutions that all people expect and making progress towards a better and a more peaceful and prosperous future, and a healthier planet.
In a similar speech, the President of the 78th Session of the General Assembly Dennis Francis outlined four essential priorities to effectively address the new session's global challenges, noting that these priorities are peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all.
Francis added that interconnected challenges such as climate, conflict, and poverty continue to make peace more elusive, emphasizing the General Assembly's special responsibility to ensure that efforts are based on a robust, inclusive, and legitimate multiparty system to enhance participation in decision-making.
He praised the initiative aimed at holding the permanent Security Council members accountable for their use of veto, describing it as "an important step towards greater transparency and accountability that must be interpreted within the ambit of system-wide UN reform.
Regarding the prosperity priority, Francis emphasized the importance of devising solutions tailored specifically to the challenges faced by countries going through conflict and post-conflict situations. He stated that the General Assembly must throw its weight behind enhancing finance, technology, debt sustainability, and capacity building in places grappling with development deficits and urgent need for assistance.
He called for an accelerated shift to clean energy and enhancing adaptation support by making climate financing more available, accessible, and affordable. He affirmed that it is no longer tolerable to accept unfair financial systems that keep countries trapped in debt and deprivation.
The President of the 78th Session of the General Assembly stressed that the SDG Summit scheduled this month is a critical opportunity to address this and breathe new life into the entire Sustainable Development Goals process.
On sustainability, Francis emphasized that the only way to ensure humanity and the planets survival is by building sustainable societies in harmony with each other and with nature. With a global population set to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, it is imperative to transition to a mode of producing, consuming and living that is in equilibrium with all people, species and ecosystems, he said.
Source: Qatar News Agency